Air New Zealand Launching Direct Flight to New York

Bloomberg News/TNS — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will take the national carrier’s first direct flight later this month from Auckland to New York, where she will attend the U.N. General Assembly.

Air New Zealand will launch the flight on Sept. 17. In March, it said the 17 1/2-hour service, among the world’s longest direct routes, was part of an effort to rebuild the nation’s tourism industry after it was decimated by the COVID pandemic.

Ardern will host a meeting on targeting online hate speech — the Christchurch Call to Action Leader’s Summit — with France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Sept. 20.

“I look forward to meeting with heads of state and global tech leaders to continue our important work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online,” Ardern said, according to a statement from her office.

Ardern is also expected to tout the New Zealand film industry in a meeting with executives from the Motion Picture Association of America.